Open Water Swimming Group in Galveston Area?

UPDATE

I wasn't able to find a place to do open water swim training, but I did swing by the Lowry Fitness Center in Texas City. They have a very nice Natatorium. After my first early morning visit, and swim, I got a membership. So far so good. I now have a place to work on my technique.

Sylvan beach.

It is in La Porte and has a little roped off area that is WAY too crowded.  But if you duck under the rope and swim on the outside you have plenty of open water.

Of course this is salt water.

Twin lakes is probably a little closer to you than 288.  Maybe save you 10 mins.  But 288 is better than twin.  Twin is cheaper though.

There is another lake similar to 288 but on the mainland more on the far side of Galveston island.  I've forgotten the name of it.   It might be closer than 288. 

That said, you don't have to OW that often.  Make the extra drive every couple of weeks and do the rest of the training in the Natorium.

My first year I tried to OW once a week, but it has fallen off to about once every couple of months.

The way I understand it is:

Swimming is not particularly injury prone compared to running so a lot of the gains can be made in short, hard intervals.  Doing long sets is good for confidence and practice, but not as good for building strength and form.

Pools have easily measured distances to rate yourself on.  25, 50, 100, 200s are all easy to track your progress against.  Open water is much more difficult to measure, even races tend to be short or long.

Open water practice is required for a few reasons:

1. Familiarity and comfort in the open water.  There are 1000 threads here on the recent swim deaths, swim panics, swim fears... get over the fear by getting in the water and being comfortable.  For me that was a lot of swims at first.  Fewer later.
2. Wetsuit practice.  In houston there are not that many wetsuit legal races, but if you have one coming up getting out in your wetsuit is a good idea, and the chlorine is not good for them.  Plus the pools are too warm to do any serious wetsuit practice.
3. Sighting.  There are no black lines in the open water, no lanes, and we don't always swim straight.  Get in the water pick a target and look up once in a while to see it.
4. Boredom.  The openwater is a lot more fun than the pool.

That said, once you are comfortable with the open water, and get some practice in a week or so before the race you are usually good to go.

Awesome. Thanks. I'll keep that in mind.